- China–United States trade war (Wikipedia)
An economic conflict between China and the United States has been ongoing since January 2018, when U.S. President Donald Trump began setting tariffs and other trade barriers on China with the goal of forcing it to make changes to what the U.S. says are longstanding unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft. The Trump administration stated that these practices may contribute to the U.S.–China trade deficit, and that the Chinese government requires transfer of American technology to China. In response to US trade measures, the Chinese government accused the Trump administration of engaging in nationalist protectionism and took retaliatory action. After the trade war escalated through 2019, in January 2020 the two sides reached a tense phase one agreement; it expired in December 2021 with China failing by a wide margin to reach its targets for U.S. imports to China. By the end of the Trump presidency, the trade war was met with some criticism. His successor, Joe Biden, however, has kept the tariffs in place.
- Epsilon Crucis (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
EPS CRU (Epsilon Crucis). Here is one of the most viewed of all stars, while at the same time being one of the most obscure. How can that be? At fourth magnitude (3.59, just fainter than third), Epsilon Crucis has a prominent place as the “fifth star” of one of the most famed of all constellations, Crux, the Southern Cross, lying almost on a line between brighter Delta Crucis (the Cross’s most northerly star) and first magnitude Acrux (Alpha Crucis).
